Community Download is a weekly discussion-focused articles series published every Monday in which we pose a single, core question to you all, our readers, in the spirit of fostering discussion and debate.

Tons of technology companies around the world are actively working on VR whether it be from a software or hardware perspective. HTC has already released both the standard Vive and Vive Pro headsets and even Sony did a small update to the PSVR — as well as Samsung’s new iteration of the Gear VR. Facebook has stayed awfully quiet about future Rift plans, though.

After the announcement that Brendan Iribe is officially leaving Oculus, rumors swirled about the cancellation of a ‘Rift 2’ PC-based VR headset. Facebook has since stated that future versions of Rift are still coming, but didn’t provide any details beyond that.

Oculus has always been notoriously tight-lipped about not only sales figures, but also its product roadmap. At Oculus Connect 5 we learned a bit about the company’s long-term vision in regards to a three-pronged approach with the Oculus Go, Oculus Quest, and Oculus Rift.

Ultimately, the question boils down to this: What would you want out of a Rift 2 or the next version of the Rift? As a consumer, what would you prefer — waiting longer for a bigger upgrade (foveated rendering, built-in wireless, wider FOV and higher resolution) or would you rather have a small upgrade in the near-term that only improves things marginally, like the Vive Pro.

HTC reveals native hand/finger tracking for Vive Pro alongside 6DoF functionality for Vive Focus. It looks as though the front-facing cameras on your Vive Pro will finally begin seeing some use as HTC reveals plans to launch native support for hand and finger tracking on their high-end PC VR headset. HTC revealed the devices exciting

When I imagine the perfect Ghostbusters game, a map-based AR adventure isn’t one of the things that comes to mind. A mysterious third person shooter? You got it. A spookily-funny puzzler? Sure. There isn’t really a reason the classic Bill Murray-fueled franchise would work with the formula dominated by Pokemon GO.

Ghostbusters World failed to change my mind. It’s a mobile adventure that dresses basic elements of the genre, popularized by games like Ingress and Pokemon GO, with a Ghostbusters theme. Pokestops are now dimensional doors, Pokeballs are now ghost traps, and obviously– Pokemon are now the famous ghosts found in all corners of the Ghostbusters franchise.

Everything about Ghostbusters World is done well enough, gameplay is tight and responsive, battle mechanics are somewhat deep, and the story mode does a good job of adding meaning to the collect-a-thon that this genre promotes. The issue is that collecting has never been a big part of Ghostbusters, so World doesn’t push me to care enough to walk around the block to a McDonalds for a group Stay Puft Marshmallow Man raid (and even when I did try the game crashed a few times). This game is proof that the franchise doesn’t fit the genre.

Ghostbusters World has two main elements: the typical map-based AR, free-roam gameplay and a structured story mode consisting of short missions tied together with a comic book styled narrative. The combination of those two features, alongside a long list of ghosts and other modes, makes for a meaty package for a free-to-play game. Although progress-slowing microtransactions rear their ugly heads early on.

There are a couple primary types of gameplay in World, one where you capture ghosts on the map by aiming a proton gun with your finger and turn-based team battles where you use capture ghosts to fight other ghosts.

The capture mechanics are simple, ghosts will try to attack you as you try to capture them with various versions of the proton gun, you can counter their attacks with a carefully timed finger tap but there aren’t a lot of consequences if you mess up. It’s a simple back and forth that gets a bit more complicated as ghosts get stronger and you gain access to different types of equipment later in the game.

The team-based battling has a bit of depth to it that’s surprising for a game like this. Ghosts have levels and ranks that can be upgraded through battle (and that process can be sped up through in-game currencies), ghosts are assigned a rock-paper-scissors type classification to make battles less of a punching match and ghosts have other abilities that are used both passively and actively in battle.

World shines in adding a story mode to the game, tying all the elements and progression systems together. It actually feels like you’re working towards something when you collect ghosts and level up– unlike Pokemon GO where it feels like an endless sea of collecting and going back and forth with PVP battles.

An Oculus representative reaffirmed to us the words of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckberg from last month’s OC5 VR developer conference in saying today the company is still “planning a future version of Rift.”

Facebook focused a large part of its 5th VR developer conference on Oculus Quest, the forthcoming $400 standalone headset, but the company is still invested in PC-powered Rift games we don’t expect to ship until 2019 at the earliest. We know the company is also investing heavily into ideas like eye-tracking, foveated rendering and wide field of view optics for VR headsets that might require PCs to power them in the future. In addition, Oculus supports the VirtualLink connector included on the newest NVIDIA RTX graphics cards meant for next-generation VR headsets, though no headsets take advantage of the new connector yet.

#accurate https://t.co/JHUDD0DyBA

— Boz (@boztank) October 22, 2018

With news today that Oculus co-founder and former CEO Brendan Iribe is departing the company, a report from Techcrunch suggested that Iribe’s vision for Oculus differed from that of Facebook’s executives and referred to a cancelled “Rift 2” headset Iribe is said to have worked on.

Oculus co-founder Nate Mitchell, who has been leading the Rift and PC organization with Iribe, will remain in his position and lead the team.

A lot of questions today about the future of Rift — we’re still driving forward on the Rift/PC platform with new hardware, software, and content.

Lots of great stuff in the works. More to share in the months ahead.

— Nate Mitchell (@natemitchell) October 22, 2018

As a reminder, here’s what Zuckerberg said to developers at Oculus Connect 5 on September 26 this year, referencing a “new version” of the Rift.

The latest edition of Samsung’s Odyssey VR headset promises better visuals and a more comfortable fit. Samsung earlier this morning revealed its HMD Odyssey Plus, an updated version of the companies 2017 Windows Mixed Reality headset, delivering improved visuals, new functionality, and a more comfortable design. Using what the company refers to as Anti-Screen Door

Oculus co-founder Brendan Iribe, the company’s first and only CEO, is parting ways with parent company Facebook.

In a post on Facebook Iribe noted he would be taking his “first real break” in over 20 years, though didn’t provide a reason for his departure.

“Working alongside so many talented people at Oculus and Facebook has been the most transformative experience of my career,” Iribe wrote. “We have a saying when someone compliments or thanks you – ‘team effort’. The success of Oculus was only possible because of such an extraordinary team effort. I’d like to sincerely thank everyone that’s been a part of this amazing journey, especially @Mark for believing in this team and the future of VR and AR.”

Iribe is the second founding member of Oculus to part ways with Facebook in the past 18 months after Rift inventor Palmer Luckey left in March of 2017. Facebook also didn’t provide a reason for that departure and Luckey declines to comment on it as well.

According to a Facebook representative, Oculus co-founder Nate Mitchell, who has been leading the Rift and PC organization with Iribe, will remain in his position and lead the team.

“What an incredible run these past 6 years,” Mitchell wrote on Facebook. “We could not have done it without you and I’m honored to have started this journey with you. Thanks for everything, Brendan – you’ll be dearly missed. Can’t wait to see what you take on next.”

Iribe helped launch Oculus in 2012 alongside Luckey, Mitchell, Michael Antonov and the late Andrew Scott Reisse. He assumed the role of the company’s CEO and Iribe helped Luckey raise more than $2 million on Kickstarter for their initial project by getting support from game engines such as Unreal and Unity. In the following years Iribe oversaw Facebook’s acquisition of Oculus for what’s thought to be $3 billion in 2014 before launching the first consumer Rift in 2016.

However, in late 2016, Iribe stepped down from the CEO role. He ultimately disappeared from the spotlight, no longer appearing on-stage at the annual Oculus Connect developer conferences. Mark Zuckerberg appointed Hugo Barra as Facebook’s VP of VR, though Oculus itself hasn’t had a CEO since.

Last year a Texas jury made a $500 million decision against Oculus, Facebook and its co-founders based around claims made by Bethesda parent company, ZeniMax Media. The company claimed Oculus CTO John Carmack had stolen Bethesda-owned technology when Carmack moved from ZeniMax-owned id Software over to Oculus. Facebook was recently able to halve this to $250 million and Carmack has resolved his own personal dispute with ZeniMax. An appeal is still moving forward for the larger Oculus/ZeniMax case.

Sony might be looking to make VR less isolating by allowing multiple people to join in on the fun.

As reported by Android Headlines, the company recently had a patent published that details a means of allowing multiple VR headsets within the same proximity to communicate with one device. The system uses a data processing device and a means of wirelessly interconnecting headsets to allow VR users in the same room to see each other in the same virtual environment and explore it together.

There are several interesting points to this patent. Obviously, local VR multiplayer itself sounds hugely compelling, though it comes with some safety risks and space concerns. It’s possible that the company is thinking more along the lines of location-based VR here, though the ability for two PSVR owners to play table tennis or something like Rec Room whilst standing next to each other is intriguing. Images show users not only watching videos together but walking around worlds too.

The mention of a wireless device is also promising, though it’s unclear if this refers to simply connecting two headsets without a physical link or if it means connecting to the processing device too. If it’s the latter then it could mean Sony is looking at a wireless solution for an unannounced follow-up to PSVR, which I think everyone’s got their fingers crossed for, though the images in this article do seem to feature wires on the headsets.

We’d also be interested to see how multiple headsets might be tracked; PSVR’s current camera-based solution doesn’t seem like it’s up to the task. Last year we also covered a patent that suggested the company was looking into a new system comparable to SteamVR tracking. The image above shows what looks like a multi-sensor device located in the center of a room.

We also recently reported on yet another Sony patent that suggested the company is looking at new systems to detect and confront simulation sickness in VR. We now know Sony is working on a next generation console, and these patents are providing some interesting hints as to what a possible follow up to PSVR might look like.